1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a pipe cutter, and in particular a hand-held pipe cutter.
2. Description of the Background Art
The parting of pipes—also referred to as “cutting into sections”, is often the first step in installation work. The quality of the cutting, i.e. in particular the quality of the cutting edge, is of major importance for subsequent operations, in particular for subsequent joining of cut pipe ends. An important criterion for clean parting—e.g. cutting, sawing or punching—of pipes is a right-angled cut; the pipe must therefore be at right angles to the parting tool, such as a cutting wheel. Furthermore, the stable position of the pipe in the tool and the quality of the tool components, such as of the cutting wheel, and of course the parting process itself play a role with regard to the parting quality.
For the cutting of pipes, pipe cutters have been developed for many years. In particular for use on the building site, hand-held tools are desired. Criteria for these tools are the weight, the convenience and compactness, the cost and of course the cutting quality. Moreover, desired tools are those which can be flexibly used and in particular do not occupy too much space during cutting, since it is often also necessary to cut already laid pipes with little space around the pipe. A clean cut when parting pipes is an absolute necessity, since otherwise damage during subsequent use and processing of the pipes is the result. Poor cut edges result, for example, during the joining of pipes by pressing, in pipe ends tilted in the fittings and damaged sealing rings or deformed press fittings and hence leaking systems.
What is generally problematic in the case of known pipe cutters is the ratio of cutting surface quality to length tolerance to costs. Economical tools which are easy to handle often do not give the required cut quality; thus, for example when the pipe is held slightly skew, skew cut edges are the result; moreover, strong contraction of the pipe toward the inside and deformation of the pipe generally occur during cutting. Another disadvantage is the formation of external and/or internal burrs, which have to be removed after the parting and for this reason commercially available tools often have an integrated deburrer. Neglected burrs can cause turbulence in the pipe interiors, which lead to pressure drops and corrosion damage and moreover constitute a risk of injury for the workman.
If the cutting tool is formed in such a way that the pipe has to be rotated for cutting, the safety of the workman may be in danger by deflection of the pipe during processing in the case of unbalanced positioning.